Mary Cassatt

Painter of Modern Women

Griselda Pollock

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9780500776834
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Monographs

A close ally of Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt was the only American painter at the heart of the Impressionist group in Paris. Highly respected on both sides of the Atlantic, Cassatt was a forthright advocate for womens intellectual, creative and political emancipation. She brought her discerning gaze and compositional inventiveness across many media to the subtle social interactions of women in public and private spaces, such as at the theatre, and in moments of intimacy with children, where she was one of the most attentive and unsentimental analysts of the infant body and the childs emerging personality. Tracing key moments in Cassatts long career, art historian Griselda Pollock highlights Cassatts extensive artistic training across Europe, analysing her profound study of Old Masters while revealing her intelligent understanding of both Manet and Courbet. Pollock also provides close readings of Cassatts paintings and her singular vision of women in modernity. Now revised with a new preface, updates to the bibliography and colour illustrations throughout, this book offers a rich perspective on the core concerns of a major Impressionist artist through the frames of class, gender, space and difference.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the Author
• Contents
• Preface
• Chronology
• Introduction: Who is Mary Cassatt? What is She?
• Chapter 1: Mary Cassatt: Painter of “Modern Woman,” 1893
• Chapter 2: Americans at Home and Abroad
• Chapter 3: Cassatt’s Choices 1870–77
• Chapter 4: Modern Woman— Modern Spaces 1877–91
• Chapter 5: The Maid and the Mother in the Color Prints of 1891
• Chapter 6: The Child of Modernity 1895–1915
• Epilogue
• Select Bibliography and Sources
• List of Illustrations
• Index
• Copyright